Friday, 25 August 2017

Almost a full month since my last post. I've had a good bit of bother this past couple of months with life not going 100% to plan for myself and people I care about. However that is life and as is expected the hobby side of things has taken a hit not that, that matters so much.

I have had some positive hobby things happen lately. I went to Claymore in Edinburgh and had a nice day. I didn't buy much to be honest but there were a number of cool games to see.

My biggest lift came from a delivery of ACW 28mm figures from Raven Banner Games in the US. I signed up for their kickstarter (my 1st) mainly for my brother, however as they are lovely figures I've decided I'll be doing a few regiments myself. The Kickstarter I'm pleased to say went really smooth and I purchased around 10 regiments worth as well as upper command sets and I'm really chuffed with my purchase.

The troops as you can see are all in greatcoats and I am amazed by the amount of poses that are supplied. There are 10 regular trooper poses that are joined by officers, flag men, musicians as well as enthusiastic types.

I finished them off with a kinda autumn/winter look and GMB flags and I'm pretty happy how they came out.

I also recently finished General Thomas Francis Meagher leader of the Irish brigade. Lovely figure!

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been having work done around the house, a new tiled roof and boiler fitted. Unfortunately it didn't all go smoothly so the hobbying side of life slowed down a good bit.

Thankfully fingers crossed I can now get back to life and painting. I've been working on the Saxon Guard battalion I converted and I'm at the half way point.

These guys are for 1813, there is some debate around what headgear they wore in battle. I've gone with bearskins, it would have been far easier with shakos however I took Kawe of Westfakia Miniatures advice and went with the head swaps.

So 16 down, 16 to go. They have been a lot of fun so far. The pics aren't great as I did them with my samsung phone and the quality is far to good. Makes the finish look very rough.

Ok I hope everyone is enjoying our hobby and pushing on with their projects. Happy wargaming!!!

Saturday, 17 June 2017

So I have at long last finished another Saxon battalion. This is the 2nd battalion of the Prinz Clemens regiment. I believe the 1st Saxon battalion I painted was the 1st battalion of this regiment so that's the regiment completed.

A wee video on the finished bits and what else I have on the go.

I've added in an NCO to the battalion converted from the newer AB French set. He's a fair bit bigger than the older Saxon range however he still fits in pretty well.

I've again tried to give a bit of variety to the unit by doing different colours of trousers and mixing up my shades of white on the uniforms and belts.

I also added in a converted officer in the blue/grey uniform that was apparently frequently used on campaign. I started off a bit too warm on it and I'm not 100% happy how he turned out, however within the battalion he'll mingle and do fine.

What next? Well I've cleaned up another Saxon battalion and I'm painting some Saxon skirmishers and an ADC that I've converted.

Saturday, 10 June 2017

Well I should really be posting pics of a completed Saxon battalion however I caught the bug to push on with some Saxon command types to lead the troops.

Not so long ago I spotted on a youtube channel that Peter at Calpe had released 28mm upper command troops for his Saxon 1813 range and I also heard mentioned that there was a Peter Bunde colour plate to go along with them.

It had been in my mind for some time to do some conversions to create my own Saxon brigade and upper command figures seeing as there are no appropriate figures in 18mm or at least not in the AB range.

The finished figures are not 100% perfect in uniform but close enough for me and they are not all exact brigade commanders but officers that I thought would be kicking around the brigade and divisional command groups. The calpe commands are aimed at 1813 when the rank of the commanding officers was apparently a lot lower after the incredible loss of life in 1812.

This dude is an inspector of reviews next to a mounted officer of the Niesemeuchel regiment. He has the silver/white metal buttons and fittings of that rank.

This grand chap is obviously a mounted Saxon guard officer with a converted AB French officer turned into an officer of the Saxon royal general staff.

I'm very happy how these guys came out, the head swaps look pretty good especially as some of the bodies were quite large so finding a head to match wasn't so easy. I was interested to see that in 1812-13 the Saxon upper command were wearing the bicorne shoulder to shoulder. I had assumed that this was the pre 1810 style as there are a number of colour plates showing it worn in the later french fashion of front to back? I did converted a brigade command a number of years ago in that style.

Anyway I have enough done to get me started so I'm gonna move into something until I need to finish the rest.

Tuesday, 30 May 2017

I've been pushing on with my Prussians and Saxons lately mostly with conversions however I've still been painting a good bit too in my spare time.

I managed to get a battalion of Saxons finished ready to base.

So this is the 2nd battalion of my Prinz Clemens regiment for 1812-13. This battalion finishes off the regiment.

A slightly converted AB NCO.

This is my least favourite pose with what seems to be a head swap of a french man onto a Saxon body. The collar/neck on these guys isnt to pretty and needed a wee tidy up. I decided to jazz them up with some fancy trousers.

I took some shortcuts with the whites to get the battalion finished quicker. Still look pretty good to me.

More stripes for a little bit of a campaign look.

And 1 final little Saxon side project I've been working on is converting various figures to Saxon upper command for 1812-13. I picked up the 28mm Calpe figures and Peter Bunde plate and have been trying to match them as best I can. This is the 1st of them, he's my colour test for the blue, the rest are primed and ready to go.

Anyway I hope everyone's doing well with their projects and happy wargaming!!!

Thursday, 4 May 2017

Well I'm happy to say I managed to get another battalion finished off for my Prussian army. This time a reserve battalion.

This is the 3rd battalion for my 6th Prussian reserve regiment. All the figures are Old Glory (old OG) and were great fun to paint. I have had this battalion sitting about for years so it's a wee bit more of a buzz to see them ticked off.

I have mixed in the regular Old Glory Prussian infantry as a few NCO's, officers and musicians giving the battalion a good variety of poses. This battalion finishes off the 3 battalions of my 6th regiment. 2 West Prussian and 1 Silesian battalion.

Sunday, 30 April 2017

Sorry for my lack of activity around the blogging world. I've kept myself busy painting my toys. Had a wee break from Napoleonics and did a number of 28mm War of the Roses figures from front rank, excellent figures and loads of fun. However I'm back to Napoleonics and I've finished a few bits for my Prussian army.

1st items I've finished are a couple of AB foot artillery limbers and guns. I've now complete 4 of the 6 AB and Bluemoon artillery vehicles I started.

For the uniform blues I have moved over from foundry to Andrea and Vallejo paints and I'm really enjoying the blends they are giving me. The Andrea blues in particular you give a lovely mat finish and mixed with the Vallejo blues give some lovely rich blues.

Goes without saying how lovely the AB Prussian artillery drivers, limber and guns are. Lots of detail to paint and very enjoyable.

I messed up when purchasing my Prussian limbers long ago, only buying heavy limbers (4) and no regular limbers 😊 however I'm not gonna order anymore, I don't think anyone would really notice or care if I have heavy limbers towing medium guns. Anyhow I'll continue to plug on with the collection. I have 2 Prussian caissons to finish off that are already based up and 50% painted and I've also completed a reserve battalion that I'll share soon.

I've also started a new Saxon battalion. A bit of a nightmare to clean up so I broke from my usual habit of cleaning and priming everything before starting painting proper and just got around half cleaned up before I cracked on. 8 down 24 to go.

Friday, 10 March 2017

Another quick post, with the Falkirk lads hoping to put on another refight of Waterloo this year I used the excitement to push on with a number of almost completed Prussian items that I've had sitting around (even if some in reality were not present at Waterloo, I hoped they could maybe slip in as substitutes in some form or another).

1st I managed to finish off a Silesian grenadier battalion that ground to a halt sometime last year. A bit of fatigue set in after painting a few Prussian items in a row.

Finishing this grenadier battalion ties up the 1st and 2nd silesian regiments together for me with only volunteer jager and maybe a third rank group of skirmishers to be added.

I completed my 2nd silesian regiment with Minifigs 2nd generation figures many moons ago and the 1st regiment with AB figures so it's good to get the grenadiers ticked off as well.

I have also been clearing out my Prussian command figures. I did a couple of Prussian adjutants. Should come in handy at some point.

This wee guy is probably my favourite as the horse came out nice. The Vallejo hull red and Cavalry brown combine well to make horse colours straight forward. Made this 1 a bay, at least I think that's what it is. 😆

Happy how the cavalry adjutant came out too, probably more for the 1813 period but what does it matter.

I've also been working on Yorck plus a Blucher for 1813 and another couple of commands. However I just recently got the message that the Waterloo game may not actually go ahead so I've slipped off the Prussian wave again.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and making good progress with their projects. Thanks very much for all the kind, encouraging comments I've received online.

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Sorry for the lack of updates, seems to be the common line at the top of each new post and this 1 is no different.

Still I have plenty on the go . . .

I finally managed to get the 3rd and 4th battalions finished for the 4th Silesian landwehr regiment.

They are a mix of landwehr and reserves figures from AB. I got the idea while reading Dr Stephen Summerfield book on landwehr. The 4th seemed to have moved over to a short coat in 1815. Just to give variation in the sea of traffic wardens I thought it would be a good idea to mix the reserve troops through as a transition in clothing, something like that.

I also popped in the odd casualty and character to make up the numbers.

As usual I try to put a character on each base, a chap cheering, a spare drummer etc as I feel it adds, well more character to the unit. 🤗

The figures were ordered from fighting 15's a good while ago. The reserve figures I have to say were disappointing. On a few of the poses there were flaws at the point the bayonets met the musket or on the inner bayonet. Also some of the legs were very fragile at the knees plus the odd problem with faces. Thankfully I was able to hand around 40 in all to Ian of fighting 15's at Falkirk so he could see the specific poses himself. Also some of the landwehr figures seemed to have excess metal on the left of their faces, I tried to make this into a bandage where possible. I'm sure the moulds have been sorted out now that the problem was pointed out. It was reassuring to hear from Ian of fighting 15's that he appreciates people making him aware of any problems so they can be fixed and as he said, at the price the customer should get them in perfect condition. Also saved me sending them back in the post. In the past I have usually just given any problem figures to buddies who don't mind miscast figures or broken bayonets before painting.

The AB landwehr figures are some of the best in the range for variety and are nice to paint, almost to good to be landwehr.

I position any with weak bayonets in the centre of groups or near the flag like the chap with beard on the left.

So that's the 4th and 6th Silesian regiments of landwehr finished for my katzbach order of battle and I'm Glad to have them done!

I've been feeling recently that I'm drifting away from blogging, it's not that I don't really enjoy reading posts, there are thousands I want to read and that's the problem. I find it hard to keep track. I can't paint while reading or typing and it's just so much easier to listen while cleaning up troops or basing than searching online. I find it increasingly difficult to force myself to put a blog post together compared to shooting a quick video. I'll keep posting and hopefully the blogger app will be improved for Ipad?

Monday, 13 February 2017

I'm still a bit slow on my updates although I'm busy painting away. I have completed a couple of no frills French artillery batteries.

They were repainted from figures I'd picked up over the years. Pretty much total repaints to be honest.

I used Andrea paints for the blues and they worked really well. I describe them in the wee video I did. I left out a highlight on the guard horse artillery to see how much of a difference it made and in 18mm not much.

I'm glad to get these wee guys out the way. I had them sitting around staring at me from the workbench for a good while.

Just a little flirtation with my French army as I've moved back to Prussians. The Falkirk lads are planning on Waterloo again this year so I'm using the event as motivation.

Still pretty happy with these wee guys. The braid came out fine and the overall effect on the base looks cool with flowers etc.

I'll try and get another post up soon. I've finished a landwehr battalion and I'm onto a 2nd and final silesian landwehr battalion.

Saturday, 28 January 2017

Can't believe this is my 1st post of the New Year. A belated happy new year to everyone!!!

I've been busy painting and I'm very happy to say I managed to get a long neglected project finished.

I can't remember how long ago it was when I had the idea of converting my own Saxon guns? Well, I'm glad to say I finally got the buggers done!!!

I used the AB French artillery in bardin uniform with conversions to the Shakos to give a more Saxon look. Not perfect but they will do me fine.

Bases are finished in my usual fashion with tufts and flowers as if they have just set up.

Wee close up of the Saxon badge, I also added a few shako covers. The uniforms were done with Andrea miniatures greens and I've explained the process on the video above.

Did a good bit of converting on the guns, not something I'd like to do again but it was fun and didn't take to long when I got into the swing. The guns were from the AB French gun range.

I had planned on an ochre/ochre brown finish to the metalwork however Kawe of Westfalia Miniatures assured me the colour would have been a bright yellow similar to the museum pieces so I went for that, they look fine.

Really glad to have them finished and a massive thanks to Dr Stephen Summerfield and Kawe for creating my interest in Saxons of the Napoleonic period!!! Stephens book on Saxon artillery and the Westfalia figure range have inspired my small but growing Saxon army and they have also been very kind in answering my many daft question and constantly keep me motivated in Napoleonics 🤗

I have also completed a couple of French artillery batteries so I'll post some pics soon plus I've started converting my Saxon Grenadiers of the Guard for 1813.

HELLO AND WELCOME

Like most figure painters and wargamers I have a large stash of unpainted lead hidden around my house and the way I see it I maybe have 15 to 20 good years of painting left in me. My goal is to get 1/2 of this mountain finished. My blogs will be a record of my efforts.